Sail Of The Century

Leonardo Ferragamo’s shipyard in northern Finland handcrafts award-winning sailing yachts that keep the company in the race.

- Danielle Cutler

Last year marked 20 years that the Finnish sailing-yacht builder Nautor’s Swan has operated under the ownership of Leonardo Ferragamo, passionate sailor and son of designer Salvatore Ferragamo, who bought the yard with a group of investors in 1998. Pekka Koskenkyla started Nautor in 1966 in Pietarsaari, Finland, by building a design by the noted navalarchitecture firm Sparkman & Stephens: the 11m racing Swan 36 featuring a fibreglass hull. Nautor launched the first Swan 36, Tarantella, in 1967. By 1968, British sailor Dave Johnson was winning races and garnering acclaim for the new shipyard, which to the present day has built more than 2,000 vessels between 11m and 40m, from performance cruisers to serious racers. All are designed and handcrafted at the renowned – and recently renovated and expanded – Boatbuilding Technology Center in Pietarsaari. nautorswan.com

1. A Racing Resource

German Frers, who has designed Swan sailing yachts for 20-plus years, works with the rest of the Buenos Aires-based Frers Naval Architecture & Engineering team, shuttling among Argentina, Italy and Finland. As we said goodbye at the airport last summer in Helsinki after a freezingcold sea-trial in the Baltic Sea aboard the first Swan 78, which he designed, I asked where he was off to next. He replied: “Roma! For the regatta!”

2. Decked Out